Jobs for Felons in Pennsylvania

Only as far as it relates to the job. Pennsylvania law says an employer may consider felony and misdemeanor convictions only to the extent they relate to your suitability for the job you applied for. If an employer decides not to hire you, in whole or in part, because of your criminal record, it must tell you in writing.

Pennsylvania calls sealing “limited access.” Under Clean Slate, many misdemeanor convictions (second and third degree, and misdemeanors punishable by no more than 2 years) are sealed from most employers once you have gone 7 years without a conviction for an offense punishable by a year or more, and paid all court-ordered restitution. Charges that did not end in a conviction, summary offenses after 5 years (with restitution paid), and convictions with a conditional pardon are covered too.

Since 2023 the law also lists some drug felonies (not ones with a minimum sentence of 30 months or more or a maximum of 60 months or more) after 10 years without a conviction for an offense punishable by a year or more, with restitution paid. We could not confirm that these drug felonies are being sealed automatically yet, so check your own record rather than assume it happened.

You can also ask the court for limited access. For many misdemeanors (and ungraded offenses with a maximum of 5 years), you need 7 years free from conviction. For some lower-level felonies, such as theft, forgery, criminal trespass and criminal mischief, and some drug offenses, you need 10 years; first- and second-degree felonies are not included. Murder, first-degree felonies and offenses punishable by 20 or more years rule you out, along with other exclusions. Official petition forms are on the Pennsylvania courts forms page.

Once a record is sealed (limited access) or expunged, an employer may not ask about it, and you may answer as if the offense did not happen. Employers may not use it for hiring unless federal law requires them to consider it.

A Pennsylvania State Police record check, the kind many employers run, leaves out records under limited access, and leaves out old arrests with no recorded outcome once 3 years have passed.

State government jobs: under the Commonwealth's fair-chance hiring policy (since 2017), most state job applications do not ask about criminal history. Agencies may ask after the first interview and run a check before a job offer. Jobs in security, law enforcement, or with vulnerable people still ask on the application.

Philadelphia: the city says it is illegal for most employers to ask about your criminal record before a conditional job offer. After the offer, they may consider only a felony conviction or release from the last 7 years, or a misdemeanor from the last 4 years. They must look at you individually and give you written notice and 10 business days to respond before pulling the offer. They cannot consider arrests without a conviction, summary offenses, expunged or sealed records, or juvenile records. Some employers are exempt. Complaints go to the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations.

We found no statewide ban-the-box law for private employers.

Pennsylvania licensing boards must use a two-step review of convictions, and a conviction matters in the first step only if it is on the board's list of offenses directly related to that work. Before you pay for training, you can ask the board for a preliminary determination on whether your conviction would be a bar. The board must answer within 45 days.

Under federal law, a background check company can report a conviction no matter how old it is, and we found no Pennsylvania law that sets a shorter limit for convictions. That is why sealing matters. Federal EEOC guidance from 2012 warns against blanket “no felons” policies, but since April 2025 a federal executive order has told agencies to deprioritize this kind of case.